


Building a Garden

by EllieL



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Domestic, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Married Couple, Surprises
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-20
Updated: 2020-05-20
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:40:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24278989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EllieL/pseuds/EllieL
Summary: Han thought he had a few more days to finish building a surprise for Leia. But negotiations have fallen apart, and she's returned just in the middle of his project falling apart.For the May 2020 HanLeia Challenge prompt "Flowers." (I may have played it a little loose in my interpretation.)
Relationships: Leia Organa/Han Solo
Comments: 8
Kudos: 39
Collections: HanLeia Challenge





	Building a Garden

**Author's Note:**

> This can work as a sequel to my ["Scent Memory"](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22071955) but it stands perfectly fine on its own, too.

He had made a poor job of hiding the damage, but that couldn’t be helped. Not right now. Not when he’d unexpectedly heard her footsteps inside the house. 

“Kriff,” he swore to himself, she was supposed to be away for two more days. He’d just talked to her last night, and she hadn’t mentioned that she was en route back home. There was very little he could truly do to hide the work he’d been attempting, but he did what he could, stuffing tools hastily back into storage boxes and frantically shuffling bits of plasteel and lumber out of sight as much as possible. Then, in perhaps his smartest strategic move, he moved back in towards her, leaving his mess behind.

“Sweetheart! You’re back early!” He knew she’d be the only one able to tell he sounded nervous, but swaggered along with it anyway, making his way towards the open transparisteel doors that she was just reaching.

“Thank the Force!” She met him in a rush, embracing him with a sigh.

“Bad trip?” He immediately took a breath and relaxed, feeling her do the same, and kissed the top of her head where it tucked against his chest. His hands--not too grimy, he thought--stroked up and down her back.

“Negotiations completely collapsed. Mainly because they seemed completely unaware of what the meaning of ‘compromise’ meant.” Her hands tightened on his shirt, then relaxed. Finally she tilted her head up, and their lips met, perfunctorily. “There was no reason to stay for two more days.”

“Well we’re always glad to have you back home. You want some tea?” He paused a beat, thumb stroking her shoulder blade. “Wine?”

Her lips brushed the edge of his chin, then she sighed. “Is it late enough for wine? I don’t even know what time it is here. Is Jaina at school?”

“Uh….” He peered into the family room, trying to see the chrono. “Sometime after 1600, so definitely late enough for wine. Which that means she’s done with school, and working on some kind of art project at Cora’s.”

They both moved back into the living quarters, and she sunk down on the couch with a great sigh. He wasted no time in disappearing into the kitchen, and returning with wine for both of them. Only after taking the glass and sparing a glance for his did her brow furrow a bit, though she took a sip of wine and another long, slow breath before speaking.

“If you weren’t out there enjoying a cocktail, what were you doing? You’re usually still at work at this hour.”

“We had a conference call with the Ngowians at 0700, so I was out early today.” He’d hoped that information would be enough to sidetrack her, but apparently she wasn’t interested in work. Exhausted as she looked, he couldn’t blame her.

Leia merely hummed, then asked, “And what were you out there working on then? You’re dirty.”

Reaching up and running a hand through his disheveled hair, he shrugged. “You weren’t supposed to be home yet.”

“I thought we were supposed to discuss renovation projects first.” There was a wary edge in her teasing tone, and she looked pointedly at the electric fireplace in the corner. It had worked out  _ fine, _ after he’d given in and called someone else to install it; his expertise was in keeping things from catching on fire, after all. 

He knew he was treading on dangerous ground.

Rather than answering, he slid closer to her on the couch and grabbed his datapad off the table. With a few taps, he’d pulled up the inspiration and rough schematic he’d laid out, then handed her the tablet.

“This is my mother’s glasshouse.” She nibbled her lower lip for a moment, staring at the screen. “It was in the private gardens; I didn’t even know there were any public images of it, let alone schematics.”

Reaching up, he bought himself a few moments by scratching his head. “Well, there was a guy, Sevier, I ran into on that trip to Hama the other month. Got to talking, turns out the uncle of his wife, or wife of his uncle, or something, was married to a landscape architect who’d done some work on Alderaan as an apprentice.”

Brows raised and eyes wide, she looked at him. “Lucidiana?” 

“Nah,” he shook his head, then reconsidered. “Maybe the firm started with an L. Woman was Mona Hoyle, though.”

She was still staring down at the images on the screen, tapping and enlarging the image of the actual structure.

As she looked, he continued, “So I guess she saved a bunch of stuff she’d seen and worked on there, after moving back to Rohe. This Sevier messaged her, got her to send some stuff to me, and to chat with me a bit. She made another schematic for me.”

He reached for the tablet and she gave it to him with only a slight hesitation. Tapping through a few files, he found the one he wanted, and opened it before returning the tablet to her. She’d row furrowed for only a moment before a smile spread across her lips.

“Where it it? I want to see it!” Suddenly her exhaustion had left her, and she looked refreshed and eager. He regretted not having gotten further in his construction endeavors that afternoon.

“‘S outside, next to the terrace. But it’s not done yet. Thought I had a couple more days, and there was a problem with the hinges I need to sort out.” That was a  _ slight _ understatement--he’d badly cracked one of the transparisteel panels while attaching hinges, and needed to order a new door now.

The look of disappointment on her face really made him regret losing his temper with the door framing earlier that afternoon.

“But I can show you what I’ve got up so far. It’s looking good.” He was tiring to make up for his blunder, and the broadening smile and dewy eyes staring up at him as he offered her his hand told him the decision had been the correct one; Leia had seen plenty of his works-in-progress. Maybe she’d even have thoughts on just how she wanted things. So he led her out to the pile of tools and materials at the edge of the terrace, shoved haphazardly under a tarpaulin that did little to conceal the work ongoing underneath.

“Oh, Han.” A hand covered her mouth, and he saw tears glistening in the corner of her eyes as she took in. the beginnings of the structure, still little more than a foundation and wrought steel framing. After a long moment of study, she turned back to him. “It’s going to be beautiful.”

Clearing his throat, he waved his hand at a few of the potted roses nearby. “Thought it would be nice for those roses.”

She turned to him, tears tracing silently down her face, and wrapped her arms around him, nearly tight enough to bruise his ribs. He uttered not a squeak of complaint. Instead, he wrapped his own arms around her, and embracing almost as tightly, lifting her up on her toes and kissing the crown of her head, just in front of her braids. Ribs expanded under his hands as he felt the depth of her inhalation.

Pressing herself closer to him, arms squeezing and softening, he felt her lips at the open collar of his shirt, felt the energy of them embrace change. His hands slid further down as her lips moved further up, until he cupped her bottom and lifted her up against him, enough that she could meet his lips, and her arms came around his neck.

“What time did you say Jania would be home?” She whispered in his ear after trailing her lips across his cheek, as she hitched herself up and wrapped a leg around his hip. 

He wasn’t complaining.

Instead, he shifted his grip on her ass, kneading it just a fraction before shifting his hands, encouraging both her legs to wrap around his waist. “Not for a while. You know she’s always late for dinner.”

“We’ve got time, then.”

He hummed a happy response, and carried her through the wroughtwork framing of the glasshouse, towards the one corner that he’d already managed to install the transparisteel panels in. He’d wanted real glass, wanted it to be as authentic as he could make it for her, but it was too difficult to come buy, sheets of it outrageously expensive. Suddenly, though, he was happy for the sturdier transparisteel, as he pressed her back against it.

They were lost in their kisses for long moments, tongues tangling and lips bruising, as if they were a decade younger again. She made him feel that way a lot, made him feel younger than he had when she’d met him all those years ago. He slipped one hand down to fumble for the hem of her dress, twisted and tangled between them. Pushing it up, up, along her surprisingly long legs, feeling her shiver as he did so. He worked blind, eyes never straying from hers, until she blinked and sighed, as his fingers found their goal.

He knew just how to touch her, as she knew just how to make that little noise in his ear that sent his arousal ratcheting up without ever even touching him. It took little time for her to be panting against his neck, attempts at kissing long abandoned. Then he pulled back a bit, fumbling, as she struggled to stay upright without him pressing her against the wall, looking momentarily confused. Until she felt him fumbling with her underwear, trying not to drop her. 

She laughed then, and he gave her a sheepish look as he settled her down and she took care of her own underwear with a quirk of her brow, as he struggled with his fly while staring at her. Then he seemed to remember himself and hoisted her up against him again, lips finding her throat just at her pulse point, nibbling at her jaw, grazing her earlobe. As he pressed into her, her head lolled back against the transparisteel wall, cushioned by the crown of her braids. They’d be ruined after this, he knew, but perhaps that meant a shower together too. 

It didn’t take much for either of them; he’d had her close already, and after two weeks without her, he’d been more eager than a man his age really should be. She bit down on his shoulder as she came, and he didn’t last much longer than that, arms pulling her tight against him as he came, forehead leaning against the transparisteel and smudging it, his breath slowing gradually before easing his grip on her. 

Legs fell away from his hips and she stood, pressing a kiss to the base of his throat as he ran fingers over the messy remnants of her elaborate hairstyle. They stood there for a few more moments, just reveling in their togetherness, before she pulled back from his embrace and looked around at the glasshouse framing.

Taking a moment to fix his pants, he watched her study it, then slid around behind her to kiss the top of her head as she looked up at the peaked roofline. “My mother always kept her roses in the glasshouses.”

“Thought they would look right in here. I wanted to have it finished and have a couple of them moved in here til you got back.” He hugged her a bit, then tickled her ribs lightly.

She turned in his arms and smiled up at him. “Thank you.” Tipping up on her toes, she reached up and he leaned down out of easy habit, and their lips met. 

“You’re welcome. Now wanna grab a shower before the kid gets home?”

With a mild groan, she settled back flat on her feet. “That sounds delightful. You cooking?”

“Was gonna get something delivered. Jaina wanted those spicy wraps from Belen’s.”

Nodding, she looked around again, before heading for the not-yet-existant door. “That sounds perfect.”

He stepped through the doorway, reaching back to pull her along, but when his fingers caught in hers, she didn’t move. Stopping, he turned back around to see a wicked gleam in her eye.

“When you move the roses in here,” she grinned at him, “make sure you leave room for a bench. We might spend a lot of time in here.”

He gave her a wink and a lopsided grin, before ushering her inside the house proper, so they could shower and she could rest before Jaina returned home for dinner.


End file.
